Building your foundation as a helper ----Understanding yourself and interpersonal patterns

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Building your foundation as a helper----Underst
anding yourself and interpersonal patterns

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Typical needs and motivations of helpers

• The need to make an impact
• The need to return a favor
• The need to care for others
• The need for self-help
• The need to be needed

• The need for money
• The need for prestige and status
• The need to provide answers
• The need for control others
• The need for variety and flexibility

How these needs might enhance or interfere with
a persons ability to help others?
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The Effective Counselor

• The most important instrument you have is YOU
• Be authentic
• Be a therapeutic person and be clear about who
  you are

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Ideal helper

• Warm, accepting, caring
• Know who they are
• Open to change
• Sincere, honest, authentic
• Invested, willing to take risks
• Good boundaries
• Live in the present
• Sensitive to culture..more

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Interpersonal patterns (see handout)

• Intimacy needs
• Need for approval from others
• Importance of relationships in life
• Preoccupation with relationships
• Need for relationships
• Level of trust
• Level of trustworthiness in relationships
• Level of confidence in relationships
• Dependency Needs
• Self-versus-other orientation in relationships
• Comfort with asking for help
• Importance given to feedback from others

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Interpersonal patterns (see handout)

• Level of self-versus-other absorption
• Approach-avoidance behaviors
• Level of value granted to relationships
• Social skills
• Comfort in new relationships
• Center of attention
• Self-disclosure in relationship
• Emotional expressiveness in relationships
• Identification with others
• Conflict with authority figures
• Stance toward equality in relationships

Source Basic Skills in Psychotherapy and
Counseling, by C. Brems (3rd), 2001
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Counseling for the Counselor

• Being a client, you can
• Therapists can help their client no further than
  they have been willing to go in their own life.

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The Counselors Values

• Be aware of how your values influence your
  interventions
• Recognize that you are not value-neutral
• Your job is to assist clients in finding answers
  that are most congruent with their own values
• Find ways to manage value conflicts between you
  and your clients
• Begin therapy by exploring the clients goals

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Multicultural Counseling

• Become aware of your biases and values
• Attempt to understand the world from your
  clients standpoint
• Gain a knowledge of the dynamics of oppression,
  racism, discrimination, and stereotyping
• Study the historical background, traditions, and
  values of your client
• Be open to learning from your client

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Multicultural counseling Competence

• Awareness of self
• Understand others
• Appropriate Skills

Adapted from Sue, D. R., Sue, D.
(2004).Counseling the culturally diverse Theory
and practice (4th Edition). New York John Wiley
Sons.
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Eight Racial Related Defenses

• Color Blindness
• Color Consciousness
• Cultural Transference (client)
• Cultural Counter transference (counselor)
• Cultural Ambivalence
• Pseudo-transference
• Over-identification (minority therapist)
• Identification with the Oppressor (minority
  therapist)

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Issues Faced by Beginning Therapists

• Common concerns
• Unrealistic beliefs